Homelessness and the Impossibility of a Good Night's Sleep

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http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/homelessness-and-the-impossibility-of-a-good-nights-sleep/375671/

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“Joe,” a man who has been homeless several times, knows how difficult it can be to get enough sleep without permanent housing.

“Where and how you sleep is often a matter of discipline when residentially challenged,” said Joe, who recently moved to Seattle from the Bay Area. “If you're sleeping in a car or RV, shelter or friend's couch, you have the issue of finding a place to sleep and being up and about before the rest of the world is. Usually in a shelter, you have to be up and out by a certain time. If [you’re sleeping in] a vehicle, you have to have it moved by a certain time. If you're working you have to find ways to make the job fit your situation or vice versa. You're on others’ schedules. And this is where sleep deprivation hits the hardest. It adds up.”

Scientists often chide middle-class workers about the dangers of sleep deprivation and poor sleep hygiene. Don’t take your iPad into bed with you; don’t watch that last episode of 30 Rock (guilty and guilty).

Sleeplessness contributes, popular science preaches, to obesity, diabetes, poor diet, and unproductiveness. And yet, even those of us who should have no problem logging a solid eight hours often struggle to get enough.

[riqster]

1. Damn right. Sleeplessness and nutrition, were the biggest challenges I faced when homeless.

Kicking.